


A Guarantee

by NoNameBecauseWhy



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Gen, also a few other minor characters, basically one giant what-if scenario, with multiple ifs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27559525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoNameBecauseWhy/pseuds/NoNameBecauseWhy
Summary: Black finally has the chance to challenge Iris and the Elite Four. However, when have things ever been easy? The challenge takes an unexpected turn, and this is merely the start of a series of chaotic and emotionally charged events.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this is another story I've originally posted on FF.net, and now I'm also posting it here. This story was meant for Black and White's birthdays, and they will receive some presents in the second (Black) and third (White) chapter.
> 
> This story is mainly about some of the stuff Black and White have been through, how this changed them and how their "journey" might go on from there.
> 
> The first chapter will be an introduction (well, kind of) to set the stage.

It was the day of the Pokémon League Tournament.

The people among the audience at the stadium considered themselves lucky – with good reason. As cruel fate willed, it was a wonderful day in spring, not the kind of day you'd want to spend inside, watching the tournament on TV.

Among these people, three spectators had even more reason to be happy. Those people were White, Bianca and Cheren.

There was no way that they had missed out on this tournament. Black finally had the chance to take on the other challengers and the Elite Four and to challenge Iris, the champion, for her title, just as he had wished ever since he had been five years old.

Due to unforeseen, fateful events, it had taken him three more years than he had originally expected, but this year, no fundamental threat to Unova would get in the way. And his closest friends would watch.

Bianca had been… quite eager to come. It had actually been slightly disturbing. Anyway, she had got her ticket easily thanks to the help of Prof. Juniper and Prof. Juniper. Her superiors knew how much this meant to her, so they were glad that they could help.

Speaking of the professors, they preferred to watch the spectacle at Nuvema Town. They didn't want to miss it either, just as most of the population of the region.

Cheren had acquired his ticket easily. The Gym leaders are always invited to the League Tournament.

White had had the most problems to deal with in order to get a ticket, which honestly doesn't mean that much. With her connections, she had got her ticket quite easily. To be fair, she would've gone to any lengths to get one. There was no way that she would've missed this event.

* * *

Black had certainly put on a show for his friends and the rest of Unova. He had outclassed the competition at the League Tournament.

Cheren had predicted something like that. Regardless of how surreal having one of his oldest friends as his student had been, Cheren had noticed that Black certainly hadn't forgotten how to battle. It had been quite unusual for one of his students to even keep up with him…

Black's pokémon were in topform in time for the tournament. So was Black. He had an arsenal of strategies at hand.

For instance, he had won the semifinal match by letting Costa, his carracosta, attack his opponent's swanna with Hydro Pump. His opponent didn't take the attack seriously since it normally wouldn't have been very effective. However, Black's opponent hadn't taken the electrically charged webs that Tula, Blacks galvantula, had left on the ground earlier into account. Black had told Costa to aim at the ground. This way, the water had been energised. When it had ricocheted off the ground, it had landed an unexpectedly effective hit.

That was just one example. There had been countless others, but let's leave it at that. Long story short, Black had won the League Tournament, and he had proceeded to challenging the Elite Four.

On a related note, Black had kept an old promise. Just as he had planned for his first League Tournament, he wore a vest with the new logo of the BW Agency (White had designed a new, fancier logo a while ago) underneath his jacket. When he had gone to challenge the Elite Four after the League Tournament, Black had taken off his jacket, revealing the vest. He had declared that he dedicated his challenge to the BW Agency (among some other advertising lines). It had been a really touching moment for anyone who knew the background.

Anyway, after that was out of the way, Black had begun challenging the members of the Elite Four. He had managed to defeat Shantaul, Caitlin and Marshal, only Grimsley was left. He was currently battling him.

The battle was almost over. Both Black and Grimsley were down to their last pokémon. Grimsley had his bisharp, which was a nice nuance of fate since it was the pokémon that had accompanied him when he had met Black for the first time. Black had Bo, his emboar.

This constellation alone was reason enough for most people to believe that this battle was as good as over. Black's pokémon had a type advantage. On top of that, Costa had managed to burn Grimsley's bisharp with Scald. Bo, on the other hand, was in top condition.

An easy victory for Black was the expected outcome. A single Brick Break should be enough to take Grimsley's last pokémon out, and Black's final opponent before facing Iris didn't have any means to prevent that.

In fact, everyone expected Black to win soon. Iris had even already left her preparation room, where she had watched Black's battles against the Elite Four, and waited for him in the champion's arena.

Well, I said _everyone_ expected Black to win, but it wasn't that easy. There were, in fact, two people that were a bit worried, namely Cheren and White.

Bianca didn't have the necessary insight into pokémon battles to notice it, and she was too busy cheering Black on anyway, but Black had… kind of lost his touch after the League Tournament was over. Cheren had noticed this right away, and White, despite being no brilliant battler herself, had also noticed it after a while.

Black had won the League Tournament with apparent ease, but he struggled quite a lot against the Elite Four. For instance, he could've already won his battle against Grimsley if it wasn't for a few careless mistakes.

Speaking of careless mistakes, he had made a lot of them. For example, during his battle against Shauntal's drifblim, the drifblim used Destiny Bond. In the heat of the moment, Black hadn't noticed that and had ordered Musha, his musharna, to attack with Shadow Ball, a move Black had taught Musha for battling the Elite Four. The attack had knocked out Shauntal's drifblim, but Destiny Bond took out Musha afterwards. In the end, Brav, Black's braviary, had saved the day by defeating Shauntal's last pokémon.

The point is that Black could've easily avoided this problem if he had paid attention, and it was unusually for him to make such a silly mistake when battling, especially in such an important battle. Yet something like that had happened multiple times.

Neither Cheren nor White had any idea what was going on, but they knew that something was off about Black. He was clearly absent-minded, but why? This had been his dream since forever. It had usually been hard to take his mind off the Pokémon League and challenging the Elite Four and the champion, so why didn't he focus now that he was facing them? It made no sense…

Anyway, let's go back to Black's battle against Grimsley. Grimsley knew that he had his back against the wall, so he did what was… well, in character for him. He gambled.

"My, I have this feeling you've really grown since our first meeting at the desert. To stand your ground against us and to overcome the little obstacles I had in store for you," Grimsley complimented Black, referring to some of the gamble-based strategies he had used, "I wondered what facing you in a battle would be like after we met in the desert on Route 4. I've been looking forward to this experience, wondering if it would be fun as our little game back then. Say, how about we commemorate our first meeting by finishing our battle with a final gamble?"

Black had a hunch as to what Grimsley was getting at. Well, not that he could do anything against it. "Well, if you want it that way, I'm game! Bo, use Brick Break!" he commanded. Bo lunged at Grimsley's bisharp.

"Very well!" Grimsley exclaimed almost solemnly, "Bisharp, use Guillotine!" It was exactly what Grimsley had called it, a final gamble that would determine the outcome of their battle. Grimsley's bisharp was fast and would finish the attack that might take out Bo in a single strike before Bo would get to finish his own attack… _if_ it landed the attack. It was an all-or-nothing manoeuvre.

"Be careful!" Black shouted to tell Bo to watch out for the attack. Bo tried his best to keep away from his foe's glowing blades while he closed the distance between them.

The move Guillotine included an over-the-top movement that might easily miss, which was the expected outcome.

Bo swung his arm, using his move Brick Break… and everything fell silent. A silence of shock and surprise. It had been Bo who couldn't successfully finish the attack. Grimsley's bisharp had only just managed to jam Bo between his blades and pinch him.

Grimsley's bisharp let go of its foe, and Bo fell to the ground. Each onlooker, including Black and even Grimsley, needed a moment to process what had happened. Even the commentator couldn't believe what had just happened. "U-um… Th… It… That," he stuttered incomprehensibly, "Um, I mean, it's over! This… is Grimsley's victory. Grimsley has won! The challenger has lost!"

The audience slowly yet steadily began grasping the situation and reacting to it. Most people uttered all kinds of comments on how inconceivable this incident was.

Bianca, however, just went straight to throwing a tantrum. "What was that?!" she yelled, "How could they do that to Black?! He has been working too hard for his chance to become champion for this to end like this!"

Bianca ran off towards the door of the special room where Bianca, Cheren and White had watched Black's battles against the Elite Four, courtesy of Iris. Cheren stopped her by grabbing her from behind. He had to restrain her in order to keep her from causing a ruckus.

"Bianca, stop!" he demanded, trying his best to retain Bianca both physically and mentally, "What are you even trying to do?" Bianca tried to struggle against Cheren's grip with all her might. "What do you think?" she yelled indignantly, "I'm going to defend Black! That has to be some trick to stop him, and I won't let them treat my friend like this!"

Bianca wasn't making a point, and deep down, she knew that herself, but the thought of Black's dream being crushed like this was too much for her to handle. As far as she was concerned, Black finally fulfilling his dream and being happy was all that mattered.

Cheren could sympathise with her as far as this sentiment was concerned, but he also knew that there was nothing they could do about it right now. Black had lost fair and square, and the officials of the Pokémon League would only get mad at Bianca if she showed up and made nonsensical complaints. Why did he have to keep his friends out of trouble so often? "That doesn't even make sense, Bianca! Calm down!" he tried to reason.

While Cheren tried desperately to talk some sense into Bianca, White just remained on her seat and stared at the monitor, at Black. He just stood there motionlessly. She wondered what he might think… what he might feel.

* * *

Two days had passed since the League Tournament. During that time, White hadn't talked with Black about the events on that day. Instead, she had tried to figure out what exactly she would say. She had the feeling that Black would be downcast about his loss at the Pokémon League, and she wanted to console her friend.

After two days of contemplating what to do/say, White was quite confident, so she went (or flew) to Nuvema Town to meet Black.

She could've started a bit earlier, though. By the time she arrived, it was already nighttime. She didn't mind, Nuvema Town (and the surrounding rural area) was very tranquil at night in her opinion, it was a nice atmosphere.

Black's family knew her relatively well by now, so they let her in when she said that she wanted to pay Black a visit without asking many questions, which might seem a bit strange given the time of day. However, Black's parents had a hunch why she was here, and they didn't want to send her away just like that.

Black was apparently on the roof at the other side of the house (which was why White hadn't seen him) for some reason, so White went up to the attic and climbed onto the roof through a ceiling hatch.

There he was, sitting on the rooftop for whatever reason. White was actually a little surprised. Sure, she didn't think that Black's parents would lie to her about that, but would you instantly believe someone telling you that the person you're looking for is on the roof in the middle of the night? Of course she would raise an eyebrow.

At second glance, Black wasn't just sitting on the roof. He seemed to meditate or at least focus on something. The sound of the hatch opening caught his attention, so he stopped meditating, turned to the hatch and saw White.

"B-boss? W-what are _you_ doing here?" he asked in bewilderment. White was the last person he had expected to see this late. On impulse, White decided to pretend that Black's words had offended her. Just for fun. She put her hands on her hips and replied huffily, "What?! Are you saying that I'm not welcome here? Besides, you calling me 'Boss' all the time gets old."

To be honest, this was some kind of ritual between them. For instance, Black calling White "Boss" had stopped being addressing his superior formally a long time ago, and Black knew that deep inside. "Boss" had become White's "official" nickname, and she actually appreciated that. Regardless, telling Black off because he called her that had become, as mentioned earlier, some kind of ritual.

On a related note, Black could easily tell that White was feigning her angry attitude. By now, he had become pretty good at telling when White was genuinely upset. _This_ wasn't one of those times.

However, in accordance with the aforementioned ritual, Black rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and apologised, "Sorry, force of habit. Of course I'm happy to see you. I'm… just surprised."

"Well, I had work to do around here. It's not every day that I'm near Nuvema Town, so I thought I'd stop by and see how you're doing," White explained. It was a lie, but White didn't want to reveal her real motive yet. She would get to it soon enough.

"And honestly, a better question would be what _you_ are doing here," White continued, referring to the fact that Black spent his time on the roof of his house, which confused her quite a bit. "Oh, well," Black explained, "I'm… meditating. Some 'free your mind in order to think calmly and collectedly' thing, you know? A while ago, I figured that I should… well, learn how to focus on the relevant things on my own rather than relying on Musha whenever I have to think something through, so…"

Well, White got the idea. "I see," she said, "But why do you do that _on the roof_?" "Well," Black said with an awkward smile, "it's nice and quiet here, isn't it? I know it sounds strange, but I couldn't sit tight for even five seconds in my room, so I tried… something else. Well, at least the view is nice."

White couldn't help but smile and shake her head about Black's antics at the same time. She took a look at the starlit sky. He had a point, though. "Well, it _is_ a nice view."

She sat down next to Black, and they talked for a while. They spoke about trivial things. Their first topic happened to be constellations (for pretty obvious reasons).

The main topic of the conversation was White's work. Black had been busy because of the Pokémon League for a while, so he had no idea what White had been up to, and he was curious.

You may wonder when White would finally address what she actually came for. The thing is that she didn't want to jump the gun on that.

Not many things got to Black on a deep, emotional level and in a way that meant he couldn't do something about it right away, but those things that did hit him hard. She had seen it one time when Musha had abandoned him, albeit temporarily.

With that said, she wanted to reach this question in a natural way. Black should feel comfortable speaking about this topic, otherwise there would be no point in speaking about it at all since it would probably lead nowhere.

Besides, White simply enjoyed talking with Black casually. Knowing that he was safe and well and that everything was alright was just nice, especially after everything that had happened. It gave her the feeling that things had changed for the better in the end.

White was even willing to speak about a dreaded topic: Black's time inside the Light Stone. They somehow got to that topic. White felt extremely uncomfortable with this topic since she had a lot of bad memories of this time and was thoroughly happy that it was over. She tried not to show it at the moment.

Black, on the other hand, seemed strangely okay with this topic. His friends and family couldn't really understand it, but Black didn't seem to mind this… "experience". It obviously wasn't that easy. In fact, Black was pretty upset about missing out on two years of his loved ones' lives.

However, he didn't think badly about the time he had spent inside the Dreamworld. He felt surprisingly comfortable talking about it. It had been like a field trip that had taken two years.

Black had been mad about this incident only whenever he had been confronted with how bad others felt about it. White had mentioned her nightmares from that time once, and she hadn't expected how much it had fueled Black's resentment to Ghetsis for causing all this trouble.

Oddly enough, this only made things worse for White. She had never told anyone about it, but Black's attitude to this issue made her feel incredibly bad – for a variety of reasons.

For instance, it made her think that all her pain and anguish over the course of these two years had been pointless. She had worried if Black would be okay or if he had suffered, but apparently, he had been alright this whole time. Well, in a sense, that is. Why had she felt so bad if that had been the case?

As irrational as it may be, White had been angry at Black for not feeling terrible inside the Light Stone. White knew that it didn't make any sense, so she never brought it up. It wasn't like Black did anything wrong by not feeling bad about it.

There were other reasons, of course, but let's leave it at that for now.

Rather than elaborating on White's emotional state, let's hear what Black told White about that time.

He had just finished explaining how Reshiram had used some kind of telepathy, which it apparently could use to communicate with Black while he was inside the Light Stone, to tell Black about the third legendary Unovan dragon and how the awakening of Reshiram and Zekrom would probably draw its attention. Reshiram also informed Black about its concern that Ghetsis and Team Plasma might try to use Kyurem as they had tried with Zekrom and of its plans to counter that, so it couldn't release him just yet.

"...so I had a ton of free time, but hardly anything to do," Black said, "Sure, exploring the Dreamworld was fun for a while, but I ran out of things to do quickly."

White rocked back and forth a little while listening to the story. "That sounds… as if you were bored out of your mind almost the whole time," she commented. "Well, I was sometimes," Black replied, "I had a lot of time to think. I hadn't had much time to take a breather during the days before… you know. Not that I've ever taken much time to take a break."

Both of them chuckled, thinking about what an overly energetic guy Black had used to be… or still was to a certain extent.

"It wasn't so bad, though," Black continued, "I've discovered that you can… well, summon things inside the Dreamworld. I mean, if you think intensely enough about it and how much you want these things, they'll appear."

This picked White's interest. To bad that Prof. Fennel wasn't around, she would've had a field day. "Really?" she asked. Black nodded and replied, "Yep. However, it's absolutely not easy… or simple. For instance, you can only create inanimate objects and relatively static things. After all, the Dreamworld can't create life or a conscious mind."

Quite fascinating, but Black managed to step onto the silly territory. He rubbed the back of his head, smiled and declared, "I used it to create cards." White didn't know what to think about this. "Cards?! Seriously, Black?"

Well, what should he say... "Cut me some slack!" he said defensively, "I needed something to do." White raised an eyebrow and said, "So you played cards with… With whom, actually?"

Black hesitated a little to answer. It had been a bit… bizarre. "Well, you see," he said eventually, "I played with Reshiram." "WHAT?!" White instantly exclaimed in bewilderment. Did Black seriously just say that he spent his time inside the Light Stone playing cards with… well, the Light Stone?

"Y-yeah, Boss! Calm down, it's not as strange as it may sound. Reshiram can apparently project itself into the Dreamworld. It did that from time to time, and I played cards with its projection. It is surprisingly good at rummy, but it totally sucks at Old Maid. What a horrible poker face..."

White couldn't help but laugh about this weird story. In all honesty, nothing amused her quite as much as Black, his stories and his antics. This said something given that White worked in the entertainment industry.

Black smiled at first, but his expression turned serious soon. He had something on his mind. "Boss?" he said almost hesitantly to get her attention. "What is it?" White asked. "There… is something I have to tell you," Black said with an undertone of worry, as if he feared that White wouldn't like what he was about to tell her, "You remember how I said that I spent a lot of time thinking? There is something in particular that I've been thinking about for a while now, and I think I have bad news."

White assumed an expression of shock for a moment. This actually worried Black more than it worried White. He waved his hands around nervously while saying, "U-um, I mean, not necessarily _bad_ news. It might actually be good news! Although probably not…" Fortunately, he calmed down a little and continued, "Let's just say I have _neutral_ news that could be interpreted as bad while not necessarily..."

White had enough of this nonsense. She sighed slightly exasperatedly and held up a hand, signaling Black to stop. "Black," she said sternly, "just get to the point!"

"Okay," he replied. He took a deep breath and told her what was on his mind, "I've been thinking about this, and I think I'll leave Unova. For a while."

White needed a moment to process that. Black wanted… to leave? B-but… Why? "Y-you mean for a vacation?" she asked, hoping that it would be something as simple as that.

However, Black shook his head, quickly shattering that hope. "No, I… I have planned to travel a lot, maybe the entire world, I'm not sure. It is something I have to do. On my own. And it will probably be a while until I'll be back," he explained.

White hardly listened to him at this point. She was busy trying to deal with the mixture of feelings that was welling up inside her.

She had considered the possibility that Black already had an idea what to do now after his loss, but she had thought that it would be something like training even harder, reflecting on his mistakes and trying again next year. In fact, her strategy for consoling Black had depended on the fact that he could challenge the League again next year.

This, however… She had never expected him to just leave… again. As already mentioned, she had a complex variety of feelings about this. The feeling that manifested on the surface happened to be rage. "Did I get this right?!" she suddenly yelled at Black while jumping to her feet, "You just want to run off to who-knows-where all of a sudden?!"

Black had taken many possible reactions into account, but White almost jumping down his throat didn't belong to them. He had no idea what was going on, let alone what to do. "U-um, I… well," he stammered helplessly, "Y-yeah, but..."

It comes as no surprise that White didn't let him finish that sentence. "But?!" she cut him off harshly, "BUT WHAT?! You just wanted to get into trouble somewhere else, regardless how the people who care for you here think or feel about it?! Like, seriously… Have you even thought about what I'd think, or any of your friends? I can't believe it! J-just… Just what WERE YOU THINKING?!"

White wanted to get out of here, as soon as possible, so she hurried off, leaving Black behind. She was in such a hurry that she completely disregarded the "terrain", and as a result, she stumbled and almost fell down the roof. Black instinctively jumped to his feet and towards her, trying to grab her hand to prevent her from falling.

His efforts turned out to be unnecessary… and unwelcome. White regained her balance and shot him a ferocious death glare, which made Black back away instantly. Do you remember how I mentioned that Black could tell when White was really angry? He could easily tell that she was absolutely furious at the moment.

Oddly enough, almost falling to her (potential) death gave White an idea how to leave this place as fast as possible. She grabbed one of her pokéballs and sent out Barbara, her vullaby. After that, she jumped onto Barbara's back and flew away without another word.

Black could only look after her while being utterly confused. He wanted to call out to her, but he was at a loss of words. He had no idea whatsoever what had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for the start.
> 
> I know that Black losing to the Elite Four might be a... very unusual approach (to put it mildly), but there are specific reasons for that, which will become apparent in the third chapter.
> 
> I also know that bisharp learns Guillotine at a pretty high level, probably a bit too high, but I kind of needed that move here. I just thought that it would suit Grimsley if he turns the battle into a gamble. Not to mention that this way of losing will have a certain meaning (at least in Black's interpretation).
> 
> Also, I know that I have some weird ideas about the time Black spent inside the Dreamworld/Light Stone. But hey, why not play cards with the consciousness of the Dragon of Truth when you have nothing better to do? ;)
> 
> On another note, the idea behind the "three years since the last League Tournament" is that Black spent two years stoned (so to speak) and one year at Aspertia City's trainer school and preparing for the event. It might not work out that well since the actual dates of certain events as the graduation from trainer school and the League Tournament might not allow it, but to be honest, that's not really the point anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, White had arranged to meet Elesa for dinner. Apparently, there was a new, quite extravagant restaurant at Nimbasa City, which Elesa seemed to like, so she had invited White.

Elesa had become some kind of mentor figure to White. Sure, their work was quite different - at least technically speaking - but Elesa had a lot of experience with showbiz in general, which she could share with White.

Admittedly, White was a natural at her craft, but there was only so much knowledge a fourteen-year-old could have about leading a company. White had needed some help, especially after the chaos Team Plasma had caused at the League Tournament three years ago (and, by extension, in her life), and Elesa had been willing to help.

Every now and then, Elesa had given White some advice based on how she had seen managers deal with certain issues successfully or unsuccessfully, and she had introduced her to some people who could help her rebuild her company.

Thanks to Elesa, White had learnt a lot about leading the BW Agency successfully, which she was well aware of. There had been numerous aspects of her business that would've caused her a lot of trouble without proper guidance, for example dealing with her own staff members. Working with Black had taught her in a hard but interesting way that knowing how to finish tasks yourself and instructing others to do so were two very different things.

Elesa had taken a liking to White during that time. Well, technically speaking, she had been impressed by White's talent and devotion since she had organised the first Pokémon Musical. Anyway, while working with White when she had rebuilt her company and partook in the foundation of the Pokéstar Studios, Elesa had become friends with White. Both of them appreciated this friendship very much.

This is what their relationship was like at this time. However, there was one more important aspect. Elesa had been an important moral and emotional support to White during the two years after Black's… disappearance.

To be honest, the way Black had disappeared had been a shock to everyone who knew him. However, to Elesa and her fellow Gym leaders, Black had merely been an interesting challenger. This honestly hadn't compared to what he had been to White.

Elesa had been aware of this, and despite White's reluctance to show how much this incident had got to her, Elesa had seen through White's facade rather easily. Over the course of these two years, Elesa had given White quite useful psychological advice every once in a while.

* * *

Let's see how this evening played out for White.

The restaurant she had been invited to prided itself on being "multinational". There were restaurants that specialised in "foreign" cuisine, Kanto and Johto had some dishes that a lot of people in Unova liked. Sure, there were restaurants offering dishes from Hoenn, Sinnoh or Kalos in different cities, too.

However, this particular restaurant offered the cuisine of _all_ of these regions, some specialties from Unova and even famous dishes from Alola. It was a one-of-a-kind place in Unova…

...and pretty fancy. The restaurant had a strict dress code. The patrons had to wear proper evening attire. Frankly, that wasn't a problem for Elesa, but White had hardly anything suitable.

Sure, she had a dress for galas or movie premieres, but she kept that for official occasions only. It was a dress in the colours of her company's logo, so it was basically advertisement she could wear. In her opinion, it wasn't suitable for a "casual" dinner.

For that reason, she had to buy a new dress specifically for this evening. Frankly, she wasn't happy about this. It actually wouldn't have been such a big deal if it wasn't for the bad mood she had been in ever since the… incident the night before.

Working with White had been pretty tough that day. Sure, she remained calm and polite, at least on the surface, but everyone she had met had immediately noticed her "talk to me unnecessarily and you'll die painfully" kind of aura.

Fortunately, working had helped her taking her mind off the trouble with Black, so she was much calmer now. She was still moody, though. She would try to hide that as good as possible when meeting Elesa.

Speaking of Elesa, she was waiting for White at the entrance. When White came into view, Elesa waved at here. "Hey, White! Over here!" she called out to her.

White put on the best smile she could muster while she was approaching Elesa. "Hi, Elesa!" she greeted her, "How have you been?"

"I'm fine," Elesa answered, "but we can talk about that inside. I'm excited to see what you think of this place."

With that, they went inside the building.

* * *

White could immediately see why people would like this place so much. The interior furnishing was marvellous, simply majestic. Everything gave this place a classy atmosphere, from the furniture in the style of Kalos' royal era to the large aquarium with countless water type pokémon from around the whole world.

If the food and service were even half as good as the interior design, White would definitely recommend this place to anyone who wanted to invite someone for a special occasion.

It was a good thing that Elesa had made a reservation, because this place was cramped. The restaurant could probably fit around thirty people judging by the number of tables and how many people they seemed to be dimensioned for, yet White and Elesa's table was the only free one.

"Wow, you were right," White said while taking a seat, "This place _is_ impressive! Now that I see it, I can't believe that you managed to make a reservation. Has it been hard to get one?"

Elesa replied with a confident smile, "Oh, actually not at all." This took White by surprise. She inquired, "Really?! How did you do it?"

Elesa lifted her right index finger up to her face and winked at White. "What did I tell you about how you can get even rare equipment easily? What do you need?"

"Connections!" they said in unison... and chuckled about it afterwards.

"I guess being a famous model and the city's Gym leader pays off sometimes," White remarked with an undertone of envy.

"Well, in this case, it's only about being a Gym leader," Elesa replied slyly, "Thanks to that, I happen to know the owners." At that moment, Elesa spotted someone behind White. She waved at that person with a smile. "Speaking of which..." she said.

White turned around and saw a familiar-looking man with blue hair. "W-wait, isn't that… Oh, what's his name? Cilan?" she asked. "Cress," Elesa corrected White, "But I guess you've figured out who the owners are, haven't you?"

The former Gym leaders from Striaton City, apparently. "Y-yes, but… Why are they running a restaurant here? Weren't they training abroad in order to further their careers as pokémon trainers? I thought I heard something like that," White asked.

"Well, you're not wrong," Elesa explained, "They left Unova for a while after the incident at the League Tournament three years ago. They were on a mission to confront three elite members of Team Plasma, but they couldn't defeat them on their own. After everything that happened, and with Ghetsis and the majority of Team Plasma still out there, they wanted to become stronger."

"So, how did they end up opening a restaurant?" White asked. She was quite curious. She couldn't imagine why they would give up on their ambitions, which seemed to be the case.

"Well, you see," Elesa replied, "They started their journey for the sake of their training, but it became something else. From what they told me, they started at Kanto and travelled together through that region and Johto. They split up afterwards, Cilan went to Hoenn and Sinnoh, Cress to Kalos and Chili to Alola. During their journey, they've learnt something about themselves."

Elesa took a look around, taking in the whole scenery. She continued with a small smile, "They liked battling, but they _loved_ gastronomy. It's by no means a mere coincidence that their old Gym was also a restaurant. When they returned, they brought chefs from the different regions they went to back with them, and they opened this restaurant."

"I see," White said hesitantly. She wasn't sure what to think about it. "And here I thought their common dream was to become strong trainers..." she mused.

"Oh, it was," Elesa explained, "But here's the thing: Sometimes, dreams change. Sometimes that's a good thing. They've found what they truly want to do for the rest of their lives, and I'm happy for them. Besides, don't get me wrong, these three won't give up on pokémon and pokémon battles anytime soon."

Elesa pointed at the ceiling and said, "There's a lounge with an arena on the upper floor. The patrons can spend their time battling there while they are waiting for their reservation or food. Furthermore, I've considered suggesting them as my successors if I ever quit my position as a Gym leader. This might become the new Gym if they'll be okay with it."

Growing tired of speaking about her ex-colleagues, Elesa grabbed a menu and flipped through it. White followed suit. She should probably decide what she wanted to order before the waiter came to them.

The dishes weren't as expensive as she had thought, but she figured that the prices were still to high for "normal" people to afford eating here on a regular basis. Well, Elesa had a pretty high income, so she could probably afford coming here once a week. Now that White thought about it, with business going as well as it did at the moment, she could eat here every once in a while, too.

Elesa had a vague idea what she would order, so she only read the menu half-heartedly. There were other topics which she was much more interested in. "You know, I'd love to know how you've been doing since we last met," she said, "How are things at the Pokéstar Studios? Have you been very busy lately?"

"Oh, it's going great, thanks," White replied with a smile, "We don't have that much work currently. No big movies, only the occasional TV commercials. The script writers are still busy writing the stories for the upcoming movies."

Elesa merely nodded in response. There was another question on her mind. "Well, there's something I've been meaning to ask you tonight," she declared. She sounded a bit insecure, as if she wasn't sure if it was the right thing to ask. "What is it?" White asked curiously.

"How is Black doing?"

An unexpectedly tricky question… for reasons Elesa couldn't have known. "His battle against Grimsley ended… in an unfortunate way. Hardly anyone at the League has heard anything from him since, and some of us are actually a bit worried. Even Cheren doesn't know how he really feels about all of this, so if you heard..."

"Could we not talk about this?!" White suddenly snapped at Elesa. White's gruff response actually shocked her. She stared at White in disbelief. What had happened?

To contextualise this a little, White had done a pretty good job at hiding her bad mood so far. Elesa hadn't noticed that White felt really bad about something deep inside. Moreover, it really wasn't like White to snarl at someone as she had just done. With that in mind, White's harsh attitude had really come out of nowhere as far as Elesa was concerned.

This, however, put Elesa on alert now. Something was definitely wrong… "W-why? What's wrong?" she asked. White tried to hide behind her menu, but Elesa could still make out her disgruntled expression.

"Nothing," White answered half-heartedly. She tried to come up with a reason as to why she didn't want to talk about Black, but she couldn't come up with anything that didn't involve their argument last night, probably because this was the only reason why she didn't even want to think of Black or anything concerning him even ever so slightly.

Further inquiries weren't possible because a waiter came to their table. "Good evening, dear customers. May I take your orders?" he asked.

White was about to reply that she needed more time to decide when she suddenly noticed how familiar the waiter's voice sounded. Elesa came to the same realisation. She and White turned to the waiter and almost shot their eyeballs out of their eye sockets and at him when they saw that – without the shadow of a doubt – _Black_ stood in front of them with an absolutely ludicrous fake mustache.

Elesa was the first of the two women who regained her composure to the extent that she was able to say something. "W-what are _you_ doing here?!" she asked in bewilderment.

Black, however, feigned ignorance and replied, "Me? I'm just working at this restaurant, ma'am. In this capacity, it is my task to guarantee optimal service, so rest assured. I'll make sure that everything will be to your utmost satisfaction! Would you like to order?"

Elesa was surprised that Black managed to keep a straight face. She looked back and forth between Black and White, who still stared at Black in shock. Something was fishy…

Anyway, Elesa came up with a plan. She smirked and said, "I guess I was mistaken. Well, in that case I'd like 'broche à la broche' and 'confiture de fraises dans la valise' as an appetizer and 'ramure fritte' as the main course."

For anyone who doesn't speak French: Elesa had just ordered a skewer on a skewer, strawberry jam in a suitcase and fried antlers.

Black, who had no idea what Elesa had actually ordered, tried his best to write all of that down. Of course he made several orthographic mistakes. In the end, he could only hope to relay her order correctly to the kitchen staff.

In the meantime, White turned to Elesa. She kept her shocked expression, though. She didn't know much about the old Kalosian language, but she knew enough to get a vague idea what Elesa had just ordered.

Black, who was unsuspecting, turned to White and asked, "What about you, miss?" White, who still couldn't believe that any of this was happening, stammered, "I… I… I still need some time."

"Very well. I'll come back soon to get your order," Black said before walking away.

When he was gone, Elesa began to chuckle. She would've burst into broad laughter if it hadn't been for the surrounding people, who would've certainly be upset if she had.

White couldn't believe it! How could she play such a trick on him?! Sure, he had it coming for his ridiculously dumb idea to show up here, but White didn't think that he deserved that, even though she was still angry at him. "What were you thinking?!" White asked in the lowest voice she could muster.

Elesa got a hold of herself, put her chin on her hand and smiled at White. "I'll let you in on a little secret, White," she said playfully, "If a guy does anything as stupid as Black is doing right now, you have every right and the heavenly duty to use it to play pranks on him to your heart's content."

White clearly didn't approve of Elesa's "logic". Her facial expression showed that clearly. She looked over at the door to the kitchen. Black had just run out of the kitchen. The head chef chased him with a suitcase in one hand, angrily screaming something about serving Black's head in a suitcase.

Elesa stopped smiling, her expression turned serious. Regardless of White's disapproval, there was something serious she wanted to discuss. "Okay, but for real this time, White," she said, "What happened between the two of you?"

White immediately felt extremely awkward. She still didn't want to talk about it. She was about to remind Elesa that she had said that there had been nothing, but Elesa's stern gaze told her that this would've been a bad idea. "What exactly do you mean?" she asked instead.

"Look, White," Elesa replied, "There has to be a reason why Black is doing this. He doesn't work here, I'm sure of it. Keeping aside that this job doesn't fit him, I can't imagine him actually being hired here. Even if he did, how comes he wears this atrocity in his face and didn't realise that my order didn't make sense? This leaves one question: What _is_ he doing here?"

White didn't respond, so Elesa answered the question herself, "Well, he went straight to our table, so I'd say it's safe to assume that it has something to do with one of us, and I'm quite sure this is not about me, so what conclusion does this lead to, White?"

Still no response. White simply didn't know what to say. Yeah, Black probably did this for her sake, as some sort of crazy apology for yesterday night.

Elesa also came to the conclusion that Black wanted to apologise for something, so she said, "It's because of you. I don't know what happened that he thought this would be a good idea, but he probably thought that he owes it to you to make sure you have a nice evening here. Considering what a bad idea pretending to be a waiter here is, however, and your attitude about it, I'm wondering what has happened."

Since White still didn't answer, Elesa resorted to mental torture. "Did you see him with another girl when you finally wanted to confess or something like that? It was probably a misunderstanding," Elesa deadpanned while inwardly laughing her ass off about the reaction she anticipated.

Just as she had expected, White blushed crimson and shouted, "NO, THAT'S NOT IT!" Needless to say, she drew the attention of everyone around her. Most people weren't happy about the disturbance. White apologised hastily and hoped that she didn't upset the other patrons too much.

Why did Elesa have to tease her like that? Iris was already bad enough! Whenever White ran into Iris, she teased her at least once about the feelings Black allegedly had for her… White hoped that there weren't even more people like that out there.

"So," Elesa said after their surroundings had settled down again, "should I keep guessing or do you want to tell me what's going on?" White disliked this kind of extortion, but what could she do?

She sighed in defeat. It probably was for the best to come clean with Elesa. "It's… just that… he… he..." White said hesitantly. Actually saying what was going on proved to be surprisingly difficult.

In the end, White decided to just vent her anger and downright yelled, "He wants to run off! Can you believe it?!" White immediately regretted yelling because of the annoyed stares she got from every other patron. She should really stop making this mistake...

Elesa focused on what White had actually said. She wasn't sure what exactly White meant. "What do you mean 'he wants to run off'?"

White explained it in a more collected manner (although she was still visibly upset), "He wants to leave Unova! Despite everything that has happened and everyone here who cares about him, he just wants to leave! He has this weird… idea of travelling across the world all of a sudden."

Elesa was surprised. She honestly hadn't expected that Black planned something like that. "Why?" she asked, "I mean, why does he want to do that? What's the reason behind it?" Maybe she could make some sense of this if she knew what was behind it all…

"That's..." White began to answer, but she realised that she didn't know the answer herself. "Well… I… don't know," she admitted. How was it that she didn't know? It took White until now to realise that she had run off pretty much right after Black had told her of his plans. She hadn't bothered asking him for his reasons.

White huffed. Whatever the reason was, it was probably a bad one. What would even be a good reason for such an absurd idea? Ridiculous! "I don't know. So what?!" she declared angrily.

Elesa sighed exasperatedly and rubbed her temples. She began to understand what was going on. "White, what exactly _do_ you know?" she inquired, expecting the worst.

"Well, he suddenly wants to go on a journey all by himself," she recalled, "He didn't sound like he had a particular destination in mind, and he had no idea how long it would take for him to come back."

"That's it?" Elesa asked, just to be sure. "Well, yes. What about it?" White replied slightly huffily.

"Oh, White," Elesa said. She sounded strangely exhausted. She continued, "Now I feel bad for playing that prank on him."

White blinked in confusion. D-did Elesa sympathise _with Black_?! White didn't get to ask. Elesa looked at her sternly and asked, "Have you even asked why he wants to leave Unova? Or even thought about it?"

"What's there to think? No matter what the reason is, he wants to leave all his friends behind! I know he can be reckless and rash, but how can he be so inconsiderate?!" White complained.

Elesa shook her head calmly. "White," she said sternly, "I have an airheaded friend myself, and let me tell you something: She may do things without thinking them through and occasionally without proper regard for the impact her actions have on other people, but she _never_ does anything that might hurt anyone without a damn good reason."

White remained silent, so Elesa continued, "You know, when Black challenged my Gym again, he came to me beforehand and asked if everything was alright with the rollercoaster at the first stage. At first, I thought he simply didn't want to get the same trouble he had the last time, but I realised that I was wrong about that when he said that he hoped I hadn't got into trouble because of that malfunction. He was actually worried that _I_ might be held responsible for any disturbances of the Gym challenge. I had to admit… He had grown quite a lot since he had been that overenthusiastic challenger who hadn't wanted to interrupt the Gym challenge because the rollercoaster had been malfunctioning."

There was one more thing Elesa wanted to remind White of. She was sure that this incident would convince White for sure that there was more to Black's idea of leaving Unova than she had initially thought. "Besides, what about his little act after the League Tournament? I'm speaking about his… advertisement."

White flinched at the thought. She knew exactly what Elesa was talking about. What Black had done had touched her much more than she wanted to admit right now. Black's plan to leave Unova was inconsiderate in her opinion, so the thought of him doing something so considerate gave birth to a cognitive dissonance which was just unpleasant.

Yet this was exactly what Elesa was aiming for. She wanted White to realise that her theory about Black's motives and this obvious truth didn't add up, so there had to be more to Black's plans and motivation than she had thought.

"He did that because of his old promise, the one he made three years ago, didn't he? And I'm sure you didn't insist on him keeping that promise, which means that he did it for no other reason than wanting to keep it himself. Do you really think that this kind of guy is inconsiderate?" Elesa asked.

White dropped her gaze. She had to admit that Elesa was right.

Elesa took this opportunity to address another aspect of this issue, "Look, I get that you're upset about this, but if you want to fix this, especially _before_ Black leaves Unova for real, you should begin to be honest to yourself. You're just upset about any of this because of what happened with the Light Stone and your bad memories of these two years, aren't you?"

White hated to admit it, but Elesa was right. When Black had brought up his plans to leave Unova, the image of him being sucked into the Light Stone had immediately come to her mind. Black leaving Unova compared to this event, at least in White's admittedly irrational opinion.

"Everything was finally okay. _He_ was finally okay. After two years, _two long years_ , everything was finally like I wanted it to be," she admitted dejectedly, "And now he… risks it, just like that! What if something happens to him while he is gone?! What if something happens, and nobody is there to help? Will he be alright? Will I… ever see him again? W-why? Just why can't _he_ see that? Why does he have to risk the safety he finally has?"

A question crossed Elesa's mind. "Say, White, have you ever told him how you feel about this? How you _really_ feel about it?" Making White talk about her feelings during the two years when Black had been inside the Light Stone had been ridiculously difficult. Elesa remembered that well.

White shook her head weakly. "No, I… I can't," she said, "I don't know if I have it in me. Why do I even have to? Would it be too much to ask of Black to figure it out himself? He usually manages to figure out everything when he really puts his mind to it!"

White was making excuses, and Elesa was well aware of it. She did that every now and then, sometimes even if she really shouldn't. "Yes, it would," she deadpanned. White looked at her with a surprised expression. Elesa's answer had been unexpectedly calm.

"I get the appeal of the idea that someone knows you so well that he or she can guess your thoughts and feelings even without you saying anything," Elesa explained, "but you better know that this only works so well in fiction. In reality, you have to deal with real problems. And with real restrictions. Black won't be able to guess it. He can't. You _have_ to tell him. You'll only solve your problems if you talk about them."

Was this some kind of "communication is the key" message? Well, not that White could legitimately dissent from Elesa on that matter…

"Well, I guess so," she said in the end. Their conversation ended there, mainly because an upcoming commotion didn't allow for a continuation.

* * *

While White and Elesa were talking about White's emotional problems and her argument with Black, Black had to deal with his own problems.

His plan to sneak in and pretend to be a waiter so that he could personally see to it that White enjoyed her evening and would hopefully be in a better mood afterwards (so that he could actually talk their issues out with her) had backfired horribly.

It had been so simple at first… He only had to kidnap… *clears throat* I mean, politely ask a staff member to let him temporarily take his place. Yes, he certainly didn't steal someone's working attire and locked that person inside a maintenance room, that would be ridiculous!

However, things had gone south when he had relayed Elesa's order to the kitchen. He wasn't sure if he had managed to pronounce these words correctly, but he certainly hadn't expected the head chef to become _this_ angry. Why had that guy accused him of making fun of him? All he had done was telling him the order!

Before he knew it, the head chef was chasing him, threatening to cut off his head and to put it into a suitcase for whatever reason. Fortunately, Black managed to escape. He lost that guy somewhere in the corridors in the back area of the restaurant.

However, his situation didn't really improve. Apart from the question how he was supposed to "work" as a waiter with the kitchen staff on his trail, the head chef (or maybe someone else) might have not found Black, but he found the guy whose place Black had taken. Now everyone knew that Black was an impostor, and security guards began chasing him.

Black was fleeing from one particular security guard when he returned to the main room of the restaurant.

Navigating between the tables wasn't easy, especially since he had to keep his pursuer at distance. At one point, he decided to "play it safe" and jump over a table. He knocked a wine bottle off the table, but he managed to land on his feet and kept running.

The couple at this table was obviously upset about the disturbance, let alone the spilt wine. When the man downright jumped off his chair and complained, Black looked over his shoulder and shouted in response, "Sorry, sir! It wasn't the best vintage anyway!" To be honest, he had no idea if that was actually true, he had just said what came to his mind.

The security guard didn't get around the table as easily as Black. He bumped into the man who had stood up and pushed him onto the table. That impact then pushed the table towards the woman, who still sat on her chair and was quite surprised when the table suddenly knocked her over.

Black winced at the sight, not knowing that this was merely the beginning of the chaos he would cause. Not looking where he went, Black bumped into a waiter.

The impact sent the waiter flying. He landed on a table. Well, at least he got to serve the plate he was carrying, although the patron probably didn't appreciate that he served it directly into his face…

Black, in turn, bounced off the waiter and crashed into a long, rectangular table that basically served as a salad bar, knocking it over.

The security guard who had chased Black closed in on him. Another one approached him from the opposite direction.

Black was lucky, though. One of the guards slipped on a metal platter and landed on the ground headfirst. He fainted from the fall.

The guard slipping on it caused the platter to slide away – at surprisingly high velocity. The push it received was strong enough to lift it off the ground. Black hadn't stood up yet, so the platter flew over him and hit the other guard square in the face, knocking him out.

When Black stood up and saw the commotion he had caused, he immediately apologised, "Woah! I… Sorry!"

White and Elesa had watched the chaos Black spread in horror. Well, actually it was just White who had watched it in horror. Elesa, on the other hand, had been amused.

This explains their different reactions. While White buried her face in the tablecloth so that she didn't have to watch this scene unfold anymore, Elesa commented on the chaos, "I think you should take notes, White. This might be a great inspiration for an action comedy. Black has already knocked out two security guards without even trying."

Meanwhile, Black wondered how things had turned out like this. All he had wanted to do had been to make sure White had a nice evening. He had remembered White mentioning that Elesa had invited her to this fancy new restaurant, so he had thought this would be a good opportunity. How had it ended like this?!

Black had thought everything through… to the point where he had actually taken the place of a waiter. He had even read a guidebook for waiters. Apparently, those were a thing.

However, he had no idea what to do now. He had made a mess of this place! How could he possibly fix this?!

Black temporarily forgot about the security being on his trail and tried to clean up. He grabbed a long pole, which was used to fish things out of the aquarium, to put it away. The pole lay near the salad bar, and it was certainly in the way right now.

At that moment, another security guard arrived and dashed at Black. "Hey, you!" he called out angrily. This startled Black and he turned around quickly with the pole in his hands. In the process, he inadvertently broke the base of a lamp. The lamp crashed down and landed directly on the security guard's head.

Elesa made a mental note that Black's score went up to three security guards. White, who heard the sound of something shattering and concluded that Black had destroyed something else, begged in a muffled voice (due to her pressing her face onto the table), "Please make him stop!"

Black, who figured that he would only do even more damage with this pole in his hands, threw the pole away instantaneously. However, he should've watched where he threw it…

The pole crashed into the fish tank. The aquarium was built to contain pokémon, so you'd usually think that the glass was shatterproof. However, there was merely a thin layer of a special synthetic material. This material was developed to emit a force field that emulated the effect of the move Protect. It was a solid defense against pokémon moves.

The glass itself, however, was just regular glass. It easily shattered when the pole crashed into it. On top of that, the pole ripped the aforementioned protective layer up. It may have been a perfect defense against pokémon moves, but not against anything else…

The water pokémon inside the aquarium used the opportunity, aimed at the hole in the defense system and broke the tank completely. The water and the pokémon gushed out of the tank, and the whole room turned into a mess in a matter of seconds. Not only was it flooded now, the water pokémon even attacked some of the patrons, at least those who had had the audacity to eat fish in front of them.

Black prayed a pack of wild heatmor would enter this place to wreck it quickly before he could cause even more problems. You know, wishful thinking. Anyway, this was how bad the situation had become: Rampaging heatmor would change it for the better. Well, at least not for the worse, which was already saying something.

* * *

Once again, Black wondered how he got into this situation. The answer was surprisingly simple: He had no better idea.

Okay, to be fair, this requires some more explanation. He had wanted to do something about his argument with White, but he lacked information on what had caused this argument to begin with. He couldn't make any sense out of White's attitude.

God knows he had tried to think of anything, with and without Musha's "assistance". The only reason he could think of was that White was worried what might happen to him during his journey, but that wasn't a reason to lash out at him as she had done.

In fact, it was so unlike White to become _that_ enraged in a matter of seconds for no apparent reason that Black was absolutely sure that there had to be a deeper meaning to it. After all, White had been composed even when confronting N or even Ghetsis. There _had_ to be something that had made her lose her temper like this. If only he could've figured it out.

The problem had been that White wasn't willing to talk about it, at least as far as Black could tell. Therefore he had come up with this plan to cheer White up a little. Maybe he could try to talk with her about it when she was in a better mood.

So much for the theory. Black's plan hadn't worked at all as he had imagined, though. He had no idea what exactly had gone wrong. He had planned it. He had even consulted Cheren. Yeah, Black could remember exactly what Cheren had told him about his idea:

"It's a horrible idea! It will certainly go wrong, and you'll probably upset White even more! Don't do it!"

Black sighed. He should've _actually_ listened to Cheren. Cheren knew how to keep him out of trouble, he had a lot of experience at that.

So why hadn't he just listened to him and called the whole plan off? Well, Black had still wanted to do something about his argument with White, and this had been his _only_ idea, no matter how bad it had been.

He had tried to clear his mind. Maybe he would've come up with something else if he hadn't thought about it too much. Black had heard that this works for some people.

In order to take his mind off his problems, he had decided to train a bit. The location of his choice had happened to be the Battle Subway. At some point during that time, Black had qualified for his battle against the conductors, the Subway Bosses.

This time, his opponent had been Emmet. After their battle, Emmet had mentioned that something seemed to be on Black's mind. To be honest, the whole "taking his mind off his argument with White" plan hadn't really worked, so Emmet had been right.

Black had given him the gist of the problem, leaving out any details that had been none of Emmet's business. Black had also mentioned his plan. Emmet had told him that this was actually a good plan in his opinion and that Black should see it through. Having still no better idea, Black had heeded his advice.

In hindsight, why had he listened to Emmet? That guy was an idiot!

Black sighed in defeat. He beheld the chaos he had caused in front of him. At the end of the day, _he_ was the one who had been responsible for all of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, that concludes the second chapter.
> 
> To be fair, I've probably included some ideas that aren't supposed to happen (in the sense that the creators of the PokéSpe mange didn't have anything like that in mind). However, everything that happens here (at least everything important) has a reason, which should become apparent in the third chapter.
> 
> One thing I'd _really_ like to see is Elesa becoming some kind of mentor to White, so I've included that here.
> 
> In case anyone is wondering: Emmet is the Battle Subway conductor with the white coat. He's a minor character, so I've figured some readers might've forgotten him, so here is a little reminder.
> 
> On another note, I hope the little French part is actually correct. It's been a while since my last French lesson...
> 
> I also mentioned that this story was written for Black and White's birthdays. This chapter includes Black's gift, which happens to be humiliation, despair and trouble. He probably doesn't like it...


	3. Chapter 3

Black had somehow made it out of the restaurant alive. That wasn't to be taken for granted.

After Cilan, Cress and Chili had taken care of the mess Black had caused (with some help from Elesa), they had confronted Black – and by "confronted" I mean "murdered if it wasn't for White stepping in to prevent that".

Black had caused significant damage, but fortunately, he had learnt his lesson from that one time when he had destroyed the recording equipment of a film crew. You know, that incident that had forced him to work for White for a while.

What I'm speaking of is that Black had taken out third party liability insurance in order to prevent such a problem from occurring again. His insurance policy had a clause which ensured that the insurance covered any damages he caused by reckless or ill-considered behaviour without meaning to. His insurance adviser liked to call it "Black insurance".

Thanks to this insurance, Black wouldn't have to worry about compensating Cilan, Cress and Chili or any of the patrons for the damages he had caused, which was already a good thing.

His main problem was the fact that he had knocked out a waiter to steal his uniform, not to mention that he had locked that guy in a maintenance room. Fortunately, Black had been so incredibly lucky that this guy turned out to be a huge fan of him. Believe it or not, but the guy was actually happy about this incident. He immediately posted it on social media websites, bragging about how he had been assaulted by " _the_ Black from Nuvema Town".

As weird as that may have been, it gave White an idea. She suggested that Cilan, Cress and Chili used this incident for advertisement. Interestingly enough, she actually had an idea how this might work. She also offered that her company would take care of everything free of charge.

All of that was enough for the triplets to let Black off the hook without strangling him. However, he was banned from the restaurant for the rest of his life and – to quote Cress – for whatever time he'd spend dead.

After that, Cilan told White, who was apparently the only person who stood up for Black (for reason she had no clue about herself), to take Black as far away as possible in a very rude and angry manner, emphasising that she should hurry.

* * *

So she did, but I can tell you that she - unsurprisingly - wasn't happy.

She sent out Amanda, her serperior, who was with her, and told her to restrain Black with Vine Whip and carry him with her that way. Long story short, an utterly furious White walked through Nimbasa City at night, followed by Amanda, who carried Black around like baggage.

White didn't have a particular destination in mind. She just walked around aimlessly, trying to calm down. They ended up in a small park in the south of Nimbasa City.

Amanda just followed her trainer without asking herself too many questions about this. She just made sure not to be left behind or to lose her grip on Black.

Speaking of Black, he spent this "trip" thinking about what he could say to White. It wasn't easy, and he had about as much ideas as he had had about cheering White up in the first place. Well, you know how this idea had worked out for him…

In the end, he said _very_ hesitantly, "U-um, White, I… I'm sorry for what happened at..." White looked over her shoulder with the most ferocious, terrifying death glare Black had ever seen. He figured that it would be better to keep his mouth shut… and his eyes, too, while he was at it. Sweating nervously, he made a mental note that White wasn't in the mood to talk.

Contrary to this assumption, White stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. She still glared at Black, although her expression was much less fierce now. "Black," she said extremely sternly, "what were you thinking?! Do you have any idea how much trouble you could've gotten into? Or how much trouble you've actually caused? I can't believe you! Why, Black? JUST WHY?!"

Black opened his eyes, and judging by White's expectant (albeit angry) expression, it was okay for him to talk now. "I… don't know," he admitted after thinking about his answer.

Needless to say, White wasn't satisfied with this answer. She was about to give Black an even harsher lecture, but he beat her to the punch. "I wanted to do something to cheer you up… No, actually, I wanted to do something about what happened last night. You just left without saying what was bothering you so much! I wanted to do something, but I had no idea what because I didn't know what was going on. I still don't know… because you're just not saying anything!" Black explained.

He wondered if saying this had been such a good idea. Given White's bad mood, putting the blame on her in whatever way had the potential to backfire horribly. When White dropped her gaze while keeping her stern expression, Black feared the worst outcome might happen.

It came as a huge surprise when White said quite softly, "You're right. I'm sorry." Black blinked in surprise because of the unexpected reaction. White lifted her head, and Black was shocked to see that her stern expression had given way to a rather pained one. To be fair, there was still a hint of anger, but it was nowhere near as prominent as it had been before.

"It's just… What you told me about your plans, it hurt me, much more than it should've," White explained calmly, "I just didn't want to talk about it, but I realise that this wasn't fair on you."

"Well, thank you for telling me," Black said in response. It was probably time for the most relevant question. "Would it be okay for me to ask why this gets to you so much?" he asked.

White didn't answer right away. Well, Black hadn't thought she would. She was gathering her thoughts first. The main problem was that every fiber of her body protested against the very thought of what was actually troubling her.

After a minute or so, her body began trembling and she said, trying desperately to stay calm, "You outrageous, happy-go-lucky idiot!" That… went into a different direction than Black had thought it would.

Fortunately, White went deeper into that, "Just why do you have to get this gloriously stupid idea of leaving Unova all of a sudden?! Everything was finally fine! After two damn years when I had no idea what happened to you or if I'd ever see you again, I finally knew that you were okay."

Tears started to well up in White's eyes when she was thinking about what these two years had been like for her. "My worries and nightmares finally subsided," she recalled, "All those thoughts… The picture of you getting trapped into the Light Stone before it flew away was haunting me to no ends! Was there something I could've done? I still don't know! I've been asking this myself over the course of two painfully long years, Black! Years when I had to force myself to move forward, years when nobody had any idea what had become of you or the Light Stone, years when I wondered if Team Plasma was after it or what they might do if they found it, found you! Damn it, Black, I couldn't list all the horror scenarios I thought of if I tried!"

White had to take a breath after this rant. Once she had caught her breath, she continued, "When Professor Fennel told me that she had a lead as to where to find you and the Light Stone, I immediately jumped at the opportunity."

At this point, White began to sob. "Y-you… have no idea… how happy I was… when I found you," she said step by step in a low voice. However, she suddenly got angry again, "I thought everything was fine again, but now you decided to go on a journey to who-knows-where! Ever since you told me, I've been thinking what might happen to you on that journey, and it terrifies me! I was helpless even when I was right in front of you, so what could I possibly do if anything happens to you when you're far away?"

Black dropped his gaze. He hadn't known that White felt _that_ bad about it. Sure, she had mentioned some of her less disturbing nightmares and worries, but judging by her emotional outburst, Black hadn't even begun to understand how distraught White had been. "I'm sorry that I've made you worry like that," he said with a hint of guilt.

"SHUT UP!" White yelled, seemingly coming out of nowhere, "You're not supposed to be sorry! You're supposed to be upset! Why can't you be selfish and don't care about me but rather how you feel about it for once?!"

White's outburst may have made no sense given that she had accused Black of being inconsiderate earlier, but that's in the nature of contradictory feelings. They simply don't add up.

That didn't mean that Black couldn't be surprised, though. "W-what?! What are you talking about?" he asked in bewilderment.

"Ever since you've been back, all you ever seem to care about is how I or anyone else feels about it," White replied, "I haven't seen you being angry or depressed about it for your _own_ sake even once! Do you have any idea how much harder you've made this for me?"

"I… I did?" Black stammered, being completely clueless as to White was talking about.

"Why is it so much easier for you? Why is it so much easier for EVERYONE ELSE?!" White asked nobody in particular. So far, she had done a pretty good job at keeping in her tears, but that ended there and then. She let all her feelings (and tears) out.

"When you were swallowed up by the Light Stone, all you seemed to think of was how I might feel or whether I would be safe, while I could just stand there… completely helpless… useless… When you were gone, I was depressed… and angry… and just sad! But everyone else seemed to move on just like that! Even Bianca and Cheren seemed to be fine! And I? I couldn't even talk about it until Elesa made me!" White exclaimed, "And now here we are, only because _I_ am the one who can't stop worrying about you. How comes you only worry about others instead of yourself? How comes everyone else copes with these cursed two years better than I do?!"

White slumped down on her knees. "If all I can do is to worry… even if nobody else seems to do… If I'm the only one who can't stop dwelling on this... This makes me feel… so… so _weak_!" White said utterly dejectedly. She didn't say anything after that, she just cried.

Amanda was very worried about her trainer, so much that she clearly showed it, which was quite unusual for the normally calm and collected serperior. She let go of Black and crept to White. For lack of a better idea, Amanda nudged White's shoulder and rubbed her back with her tail in order to comfort her.

Black was so taken aback by White's confession of anxiety that he didn't move an inch even though Amanda didn't restrain him anymore. He was too busy thinking about what he should do.

Unfortunately, that went about as well as it had done the last time. You know, when he had come up with the idea to take the place of a waiter.

The problem was that – as it had turned out – caring about White's feelings "too much" (apparently) was a major reason why they had this problem in the first place, so any form of consolation seemed counterproductive.

Nevertheless, Black had no ideas, or to be more precise, he had one, but it seemed like a terrible idea in light of the aforementioned issue… and other potential problems.

Ugh, there was no point in contemplating, he just couldn't think of anything else, so being upfront and honest it was!

Seconds later, White felt the strange sensation of something being wrapped around her. She opened her eyes and noticed that this "something" happened to be Black's arms. He… was embracing her. She hadn't expected that.

Neither had Amanda, although in her case, it was just that she hadn't thought that Black had it in him to do something as bold as this. Either way, she backed away a little and waited to see how this played out.

This whole situation was pretty awkward for Black, who hoped that this would at least work as intended. In the end, he just didn't have any other ideas. He figured that words alone wouldn't get through to White, so he had to rely on actions.

"B-black, what are you doing?" White asked after a few seconds she needed to grasp the situation. "I'm sorry," Black whispered softly, "I mean, for doing something so uncalled-for, yeah, but also for making you worry so much. I… had no idea how much this _really_ got to you."

Black internally screamed in pain because of how cheesy that sounded. He prayed that he wouldn't mess this up somehow…

"Did you even listen to me?!" White complained meekly, "I don't want you to apologise, you idiot!" White began punching Black's shoulder weakly. To be fair, there was no way that her punches would bother Black. White simply couldn't muster the strength for that right now.

"I know," Black replied, "but I can't change how I feel, so please accept that! I don't feel bad about this or anything that happened with the Light Stone, except for seeing how much you or others suffer because of it. Well, and missing out on two years. So please stop beating yourself up about it, okay? That's the last thing I want."

White couldn't believe this enormous dork. Yet he had apparently found the right words and/or actions. She stopped struggling and just cried into Black's shoulder for a while. It made her feel better, at least a little bit.

* * *

After a few minutes, White had calmed down to the extent that she could talk normally again. At least she had stopped crying.

She gently pushed Black away. He took a hint and let go of her. "All good now?" he asked with a smile. White nodded, albeit weakly.

Black noticed that her face was basically covered in tears. "Um, wait! I'm sure I have a tissue somewhere!" he said and began searching frantically for said tissue.

Amanda rolled her eyes at that doofus. She could clearly see the tissue he had talked about sticking out of the one pocket Black didn't search for it. She just grabbed it with her tail and gave it to White. White said to her, "Thank you, _Amanda_." "HEY!" Black complained, albeit in vain.

After White wiped off her tears, Black smiled at her. "Great, now that that's out of the way," he declared and suddenly pointed at her almost accusingly, "you better get a grip, Boss!"

At this point, White just wondered how often Black would take her by surprise this evening. That came out of nowhere.

As it turned out, Black had had a few more minutes to think of what he might say to White, and he was confident that he had a good plan by now. "You're way too strong to feel so weak!" he continued determinedly, "Just think about it! When Gigi left you, you didn't just go home and sulk. Instead, you asked yourself what that meant and decided to become a better trainer for her. And judging by what others told me, nobody made as much effort as you to find the Light Stone. That's the kind of person you really are, Boss! You struggle, but you never give up, always searching for a solution for your problems. That's not what a weak person would do!"

I'm not going to lie, White was in awe of this declaration. She had no idea that Black could be so inspirational. However, something was still on her mind. "Y-yeah, b-but… I needed so much help for that..." she said slightly dejectedly, averting her gaze.

"So what?" Black replied sternly, "What's so great about doing everything on one's own anyway?! When did I ever manage to do that?! Most of the time, I need Musha's help just to think straight! And when he left me three years ago and the day of the League Tournament arrived before I had my eighth badge, I was so devastated that I wanted to throw in the towel! In fact, if it hadn't been for my pokémon and the Gym leaders encouraging me, I totally would've done that."

Seriously, where did Black get all those lines from? Was a higher power writing them for him or what? Anyway, White mustered a weak smile and said, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Black crossed his arms and straightened his back, striking a self-confident pose. "I sure am!" he declared. He remembered something else he wanted to say, so he continued, "Oh, and by the way, you shouldn't think that you were the only one having trouble during my… absence. My parents told me that they were worried sick about me!"

Oh, yeah, of course. White wondered how she could forget about them…

However, that wasn't all. "And Cheren and Bianca had their fair share of trouble, too! They only managed to cope with the situation because of their mutual support during that time. Well, and the support of some other people. The point is, they even had some kind of support group for that matter!"

White was surprised. She hadn't known about that. She had talked with Bianca regularly and with Cheren on a few occasions during those two years. Why had neither of them ever mentioned this support group?

Fortunately, Black was already about to provide an answer, "My parents attended from time to time, but it was usually just the two of them. They actually told me that they considered inviting you, but when they saw how you handled the situation, they thought it was redundant. That was around the time when you founded the Pokéstar Studios. They thought that if you could pull something like that off, you were doing much better than they were. At that point, they didn't think that they even had the right to invite you, not if you seemed to be so much stronger than they were. In all honesty, I think you inspired them to move on as well as they could."

White couldn't believe it. She had never thought that they had felt that way. She had always thought it had been the other way around. Bianca had been doing so well at her job, and Cheren had been quite eager to take his position as a teacher at Aspertia City's trainer school. Sure, she had kept working for her own dreams, but she had always thought that she had had a harder time than them.

"I see," White said perplexedly, "I guess I've just never noticed. I… I'm sorry." "You better are," Black said with this goofy, confident grin that White liked so much. She chuckled a bit.

However, with this issue out of the way, there was something else they needed to talk about. "Black," she said, "I think you still owe me an explanation as to why you want to leave Unova for that journey of yours. And I owe you to listen. I want to know what's behind that… because I don't understand it. What about your dream of becoming champion? I've thought you would just train even harder after your loss, but now you want to leave. Unless this journey is supposed to be for training..."

Black thought about it for a moment. White was right, he should explain it to her. It was just that this matter was much more complicated. "No, it's not," he answered, "It's more about… well, finding myself."

White raised an eyebrow. "Finding yourself?" she asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Black seemed uncomfortable, as if he had a hard time explaining it, but he tried, "It's a long story. It all began when I was inside the Light Stone. I've told you that I spent a lot of time thinking, remember? I mostly thought about what I would do when I'd get out of it. My main goal was to fulfil my dream of winning the Pokémon League, of course. But..."

He stopped for a moment. During that moment, he seemed to be deep in thought. "I began wondering what I would do after that," he continued, "That was when I noticed that I had never thought beyond that point. Becoming champion had always been this amazing goal that was so far away. I had always thought about what it would be like to _become_ champion, not to _be_ champion. I had never been confronted with the consequences of fulfilling my dream..."

White understood what Black meant. She had seen him talking about his dream countless times, but not even once had he said anything about what he would do once he'd be champion.

Black looked at White with an awkward smile. "Silly, right?" he asked, "I had never thought of the consequences. The story of my life, you could say. But I did inside the Light Stone, where I had nothing else to do. I became aware how close I had come to fulfilling my dream at the Pokémon League. I had won the League Tournament, and if it hadn't been for Team Plasma, I only would've had to beat the Elite Four. That was when it hit me how unprepared I had been for what would've come after that."

That was when Black's expression turned downcast. "I thought about it, and in the end, I realised that I had no idea what being the champion even means," Black explained, "I… began to doubt my dream."

White's eyes widened in shock. Never had she even imagined Black - _Black_ of all people - would say anything like that. Furthermore, there was one aspect of this that didn't seem to make sense. "W-wait, but when you got out of the Light Stone, you still acted as if nothing had happened! I mean, you still tried to pursue that dream. You even enrolled at the trainer school to prepare for the next Pokémon League season!" White argued.

Black couldn't blame her. Of course it didn't seem to make any sense. There was a reason, though, so he explained, "I get that, Boss. You see, I tried to live my life as before at first. For a variety of reasons. I didn't want to worry any of you even more, so I tried not to show my own doubts. Not to mention that I had never had any motivation other than my dream. Clinging to that dream gave me something to live for. It was an incentive to move forward during the time I got accustomed to normal life again."

Black made a good point. During his time at the trainer school, he had also made great effort to catch up on everything that had happened during the two years when he had been inside the Light Stone.

"Not to mention," Black continued, "there was still that promise that I gave you. You know, about advertising your company at the League Tournament. Regardless of what I thought about my dream, I _really_ wanted to keep that promise, so I collected all the badges, entered the tournament and fought with everything I got."

White remembered Black's performance at the Pokémon League Tournament. He had done a fantastic job there.

Against the Elite Four however… "But after that was out of the way," Black explained, "I suddenly lost my drive. Everything felt so… real all of a sudden. With every battle against the Elite Four, I came closer to my match with Iris, and… I felt that I was making a mistake."

"Is that why you were so absent-minded during your battles against them?" White asked, "I noticed that something seemed to trouble you. Cheren did, too. We couldn't figure out what it might be, though." Black nodded in response. This answered another question that had been on White's mind ever since the day of the League Tournament.

"It was as if a voice deep inside me told me to stop before I'd make an irreversible mistake," Black explained, "Whenever I've talked about my battle with Grimsley, people told me that they felt sorry for me because I only lost because of bad luck, but shall I tell you something, Boss? I'm _glad_ I lost!"

White stared at Black as if he was crazy, probably because under normal circumstances, you'd only expect a crazy person to say something like that. However, White soon realised that these weren't normal circumstances, so she calmed down again and kept listening.

"When his bisharp landed that Guillotine, I felt… relieved! I had dreamt about it for years, so that might sound crazy, but I didn't have to worry about taking the position of the champion anymore," Black said. He chuckled a bit awkwardly, "You know, some people think luck is how fate manifests. Grimsley is famous for such lines. I believe bisharp landing that Guillotine was fate's way of telling me to stop."

White raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I understand that you have your concerns, but would it really be _that_ horrible? Just because you don't know what it would be like to be the champion doesn't necessarily mean it would be bad. Have some confidence, Black!" White said, trying to encourage her friend a little.

However, Black just smiled awkwardly and replied, "You know, I thought the same thing at first, Boss. When I was out of the Light Stone, I wondered if I had just overthought the whole issue. I tried to find out what it means to be champion. I talked with Alder a lot, and I observed what Iris did on the job."

Black dropped his gaze and continued in a very low, dejected voice, "I came to realise that Iris is a better champion than I'd be."

White immediately argued against it, "Don't you think you're a bit rash here? I think you can totally hold your ground against her when it comes to pokémon!"

"Don't you get it, Boss?!" Black suddenly snapped, and his angry response made White flinch. Black saw that and stopped yelling. He continued sternly yet calmly, "Being champion isn't just about pokémon or battles. The champion stands atop the Pokémon League, a leading figure and paragon for all the trainers in Unova. How could I ever fit this role?!"

White wanted to object, asking why he thought that, but Black beat her to the punch. "Just think of what happened tonight!" he explained, "I tried to cheer up a friend, but I ended up ruining the evening for dozens of people! I'm way too rash and thoughtless most of the time, and if the champion gets caught up in incidents like this all the time, it will even hurt the reputation of the Pokémon League! Let's face it, Boss, I'd be good at all the pokémon-related stuff, sure, but I'd suck at literally everything else. What kind of champion would I even be?"

White averted her gaze. It actually hurt to admit it, but Black had a point. He got caught up in such situations often… too often. He had a tendency to act before thinking things completely through, which usually didn't end well.

"Iris, on the other hand..." Black continued his explanation, "She is already extremely good at dealing with all these official occasions. Come to think of it, that says quite a lot about someone who was such a brat three years ago… Not to mention her campaign to improve the relationship between trainers and their pokémon."

White remembered that. Black was talking about a project of the Pokémon League, which aimed at making trainers question if they respect the wishes of their pokémon. The main goal was to teach trainers the true meaning of a bond between trainer and pokémon and, as N would phrase it, "to listen to the voices of their pokémon".

Iris had come up with the idea during her training with N and Alder. She had learnt why N had thought that humans mistreated and disrespected pokémon. She was willing to acknowledge his point, especially since Alder did that. However, she had strictly disagreed with the separation of humans and pokémon. Rather than releasing their pokémon, trainers should learn how to consider the wishes of their pokémon properly.

When she had become champion, Iris had also initiated the aforementioned project and had become its patron.

White was aware of all of this. After all, she had helped Iris to promote this campaign. Her business partners had seen it as a mere PR campaign, but White had had personally reasons.

The fact that Gigi had left her so easily to follow N still haunted her, but it had also taught her a valuable lesson, which had helped her improve her relationship with Gigi. White hoped that other trainers could do the same, preferably without all the struggles and hurt feelings.

Long story short, White knew exactly what Black was getting at. Admittedly, Iris did a fantastic job as Unova's Pokémon League champion. Sure, Alder and Drayden had helped her a lot, but still... In the end, Black doubted his ability to keep up with her.

"On top of that, I think Iris has the better motive to become champion. Or be champion," Black said, almost sounding as if he was sulking, "She wanted to follow in Alder's footsteps, out of respect for him. The only reason I've ever had is that my five-year-old self thought that it would be cool." Judging by the way he said that, Black seemed to be ashamed of himself for that.

"The thing that hurts me the most about missing out on these two years is how much all of my friends grew during that time," Black explained, "Both Cheren and Bianca have found something that suits them, something they want to do _because_ it suits them. And they're great at it! The professors told me that Bianca is a great aid. I mean, she was my contact when I was travelling Unova over the course of the last months, and I agree with them! And Cheren… Not only is he a strong and responsible Gym leader, he's also an awesome teacher, I've seen it! And don't get me started on what you've achieved, Boss! I still can't believe that you helped founding the Pokéstar Studios. You're basically in charge of scouting for the most famous film studio in the world, that's incredible!"

Black's praise made White feel a bit uncomfortable. She was used to people praising her work or the actors she found for movies, TV commercials and whatnot, be it pokémon or sometimes humans. She liked that (Who wouldn't?), but mainly because it meant that her work was coming along nicely. Black tended to go overboard with his praise, usually even much more than he did now.

"Compared to all of you, I feel like I've fallen behind. Not so much because I couldn't fulfil my childhood dream, but because I still don't really have a goal in live," Black declared dejectedly.

There was a lot that White had to take in. As it turned out, there was a lot about Black she didn't know and had never noticed. To be fair, she could handle that, it was just a surprise to see Black having such deep thoughts seemingly all of a sudden.

"Is that why you want to go on that journey?" White asked curiously. Maybe Black's "identity crisis" could explain that.

"Yes," Black replied, confirming White's speculation, "I think I need a new perspective."

"I think I get that," White replied, "But why do you have to leave Unova for that? Wouldn't it be better to have some help? Besides, Cheren and Bianca found their… well, calling here in Unova."

She made a point, but Black had his reasons. "I know, but I think this is something I have to do myself," Black explained, "Do you remember what Alder said about his 'journey of the spirit'? I talked with him about it, and he told me that he went on that journey when he doubted the bond between himself and his pokémon, or pokémon in general. He left the Pokémon League during that time, only returning when he had to, because he thought that he couldn't find answers at places he knew. He had to leave his comfort zone and find answers in unknown territory. To be fair, he usually didn't leave Unova for that, but still..."

White had heard about Alder's journey, and she understood why Black would want to try the same thing to deal with his own issues. "You want to do the same thing, don't you? I mean, finding answers in unknown territory," she said.

"That's right," Black replied, "I visited pretty much every place in Unova, but it didn't really help me. I think I can only discover something new about me if I see how other people deal with these questions. People I don't know yet, and most importantly, people who don't know me just as the boy who dreams of winning the Pokémon League."

White suddenly felt a bit guilty. His last sentence sounded as if Black had the feeling everyone around him was pushing him towards his dream of winning the Pokémon League, regardless what he thought of this dream by now, just because he was – as he had phrased it – the boy who just dreamt of winning the Pokémon League.

She had to admit that she hadn't known how Black had truly felt about this dream now, but she also hadn't thought about it. Just as Black said, he had only been the guy with this big dream to her. It pained her that she had been so oblivious about it.

On top of that, everything Black had told her reminded White of something Elesa had said earlier. Sometimes, dreams change. Sometimes, they change for the better.

That was why she made a decision.

Before she could say anything about it, though, Black became a bit nervous, now that he didn't have anything to say anymore and White seemed to be deep in thought. "So… What do you think, Boss?" he inquired.

White thought about it for a moment. Then, she began to smile. Her sudden smile took Black slightly aback. He had hoped that she would understand his motives, but he hadn't expected that reaction.

"I think that's pretty mature of you, Black. I respect that," she replied softly, "In fact, I'm actually kinda… proud of you." White chuckled a little. That sounded so silly in her opinion! It was true, though.

"However," she continued, "I think you don't appreciate your own qualities enough. You asked what kind of champion you'd be, and I think you would be a passionate one. One that would remind people to value their dreams, their friends and their pokémon. You'd be a champion who would fight for the betterment of Unova no matter what, just as Iris, and even if there are things you wouldn't be so good at, you'd find your way around eventually. Because that's something I've learnt about you, Black: If you put your back into it, you can achieve anything you want."

White's praise made Black blush. He could consider it revenge for what happened earlier. He averted his gaze and scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Th-thanks, Boss," he said nervously.

Her words actually reminded him of something Reshiram had told him in the Light Stone. He had asked Reshiram once why it had chosen him as the Hero of Truth, thinking that it was only because there was nobody else around when Team Plasma stole the Dark Stone.

Reshiram had told him that this hadn't been the case. It had chosen Black because it had detected a "spark" inside him that could "ignite the same fire that burnt inside the first Hero of Truth", whatever that had meant.

Black had interpreted it as Reshiram telling him that it had trusted him to oppose Zekrom and the Hero of Ideals when it would be time for that. After all, that would also explain why Reshiram had refused to transform completely for so long. It had waited for Black, who had had his doubts for a long time, to be fully prepared.

This was actually somewhat relevant because Reshiram telling him all this "spark and fire" stuff hadn't fully convinced Black back then, just as White's response hadn't convinced him not to go on that journey. "I wish I'd be so sure about that," he admitted, "I'm sorry, but I still don't think that I have what it takes to be a good champion. Unless I can convince myself otherwise, I have no right to challenge Iris for her title. I just think that Unova deserves better than that."

"I see," White replied with a slight undertone of sadness. She had hoped to change Black's mind, but if he was set on this, she would stick to the decision she had made. "If that's what you want, I'll support your decision," she declared.

Black was happy to hear that. He grinned broadly and said, "Thanks, Boss!"

"Just promise me something, please," White added. Black didn't mind, although he had no idea what White might ask of him, so he was a bit baffled. "Um, sure," he said nonetheless, "What is it?"

She asked in a soft voice, "Whatever you find on that journey, stay true to yourself! You have a lot of great qualities. For that, I am glad to be your friend, and so are many others. Please don't forget that."

Black smiled at her confidently. "Sure thing, Boss!" he declared, "And you know, if I promise..."

Black stopped mid-sentence when he had an idea. His smile became broader, but didn't lose any sign of confidence. "You know what, Boss? I just had an idea!"

He jumped to his feet, turned to… whatever might be in the direction he turned to and put his hands around his mouth. White had a bad feeling about this. This pose was awfully similar to the one he used when he shouted his dreams at the world.

Just as she feared, Black shouted, "I PROM..." Amanda had had the same hunch and stepped in. She whacked Black with her tail to stop him from making a nuisance of himself.

Black wanted to complain to Amanda, but White stood up and cut him off harshly, "Black! What are you thinking yelling like that in the dead of night?! You can't do that!" Fortunately, Black took a hint and dropped this idea after that.

He felt slightly depressed, though, because White shot down his idea to shout his promise out as he used to do with things that were important to him so easily. He had only wanted to show his determination.

White, however, could do without the determination. She still wanted to know what he had wanted to say, though. "So..." she said calmly yet still a bit sternly, "What were you going to say?"

Black sighed and straightened his back. Maybe he wouldn't shout it, but he still would make a proper promise. "I hereby promise you that I'll keep that in mind no matter what will happen," he declared, " _and_ I promise you that I'll return!" White was quite surprised about the second part. What was that about?

Well, Black was about to explain it. "You said you were worried that something might happen to me on that journey," he said, "but know you can rest assured that everything will be alright. Because – as you know – I'll keep my promises, and no legendary pokémon, evil maniacs, other dimensions, powerful trainers or weird stones can get in my way! That's my guarantee to you that I'll come back!"

White stared at Black blankly for a moment. When that moment was over, she burst out in laughter. Just where did this enormous dork get all those lines from?

Nevertheless, it made her happy. Black was right, he kept his promises. Sure, they had faced problems in the past, but they had overcome them. White figured that she should – maybe – take a page from Black's book and be a bit more confident.

"Thank you, Black," she said. After that, silence fell over them. They had said everything that had been on their minds, so…

Yet they were still in a park in Nimbasa City in the middle of the night. "Sooo..." Black said after a while, "Should I walk you home or something?" Seriously, what was he supposed to do in that situation?

Even White chuckled about the weird situation they found themselves in. However, she had an idea as to what to do. "I don't know," she said kind of playfully, "I'm actually kinda hungry. I was invited to this _really nice_ restaurant, but some _knobhead_ wrecked the place before I could get anything to eat."

Black swallowed hard. He could've sworn that he had heard an accusing undertone in White's voice. "I see," he replied shakily, "What an inexcusable act! How about I treat you to a late dinner, then? I happen to know this fantastic restaurant!"

White smiled broadly, a smile that was about 50 per cent sincere, and said, "Thank you, Black, how kind of you!"

With that, Black led the way to… where, actually? It was pretty late by now, so Black had trouble to think of any place to go to. Fortunately, he remembered this really nice cafe that was open all night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it.  
> I know the ending might seem a bit odd. Initially, I planned another scene at Mistralton City (basically Black's friends seeing him off at the airport), but I decided against it because the story/chapter is already pretty long.
> 
> White's present turned out to be a guarantee. She's probably the first dexholder who likes my presents...  
> Anyway, the title of this story is indeed a reference to that guarantee... which might seem trivial. Well, I'd agree, at least to some extent. It's just that this guarantee played a more important role in my first draft.
> 
> Speaking of the first draft, I came up with the general idea for this story before I've read the epilogue of the BW2 arc, and I had to adapt some parts of it in order to make it fit... I hope it turned out at least somewhat convincing.
> 
> One of my initial ideas was to include more explicit romantic elements, but when I wrote the story, I noticed that this wouldn't really add anything. It's not my style to include romance just for the sake of having romance, so I dropped that idea and pulled a Kusaka instead (so to speak).  
> What I mean is that I dealt with the whole romance topic pretty much as it is done in the manga. I included some hints to potential romantic interest, and now I leave it to your interpretation if the interaction between Black and White is between close just-friends or soon-to-be lovers.
> 
> I'd say the central idea of the story (when I came up with it) was to "explore" the question what could make Black give up on his dream - as unlikely as it is. I honestly don't remember how I got this idea, but at least it inspired me to write a story I enjoyed writing.  
> I could go deeper into other elements or mention some ideas I wanted to include at first (but I didn't in order to avoid going overboard), but I think that would take a while... I'll rather leave it at that.


End file.
